Battling Williams, Dementieva reach Sydney final

SYDNEY, (Reuters) – Serena Williams survived a scare  from France’s Aravane Rezai yesterday before booking her spot  in the Sydney International final against Russian Elena  Dementieva.

The Australian Open champion was teetering on the brink of  defeat after losing the first set and trailing 5-2 in the second  but she raised her game to win 3-6 7-5 6-4.

“I was lucky to get through today,” American Williams told  reporters. “I’m just super mentally tough, I feel like that’s  definitely one of my strengths.”

While Williams had to dig deep, Dementieva had no real  problems winning her semi-final against Victoria Azarenka of  Belarus.

Dementieva cruised to a 6-3 6-1 victory at the Olympic  tennis centre to remain on course to defend her title.

“I was trying to be very aggressive from the beginning of  the match,” Dementieva said.

“I didn’t want it to go three sets, because I need to save  some energy for the final.”

Williams was well below her best against Rezai but used all  her big-match experience to turn things around in an ominous  sign of her intentions before next week’s Australian Open.

“I felt like I literally lifted my game at that point,  because I knew I was gonna be headed to Melbourne if I didn’t,”  the world number one said.

“I kept thinking, I want to get a little more practice and  I’d hate for it to end now.”

France were at least assured of a place in the men’s final  after Richard Gasquet and Julien Benneteau won their last-eight  matches.

Gasquet, who resumed playing this month after being cleared  over a positive cocaine test, defeated Italy’s Potito Starace  6-3 7-6 and Benneteau beat Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 6-4 6-7  6-0.

“I had so many things very hard to do last year, so now I  play for fun,” Gasquet said.”

Former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus  also reached the semi-finals by beating Australian Lleyton  Hewitt 4-6 6-2 6-3.

He meets American Mardy Fish who overcame Australia’s Peter  Luczak 7-6 6-2.